


The last

by honeynoir (bracelets)



Series: River in Pete's World [4]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-06
Updated: 2012-05-06
Packaged: 2017-11-04 22:27:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/398887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bracelets/pseuds/honeynoir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'The Doctor? Doctor who?' The even further adventures of River and Ten II.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The last

  
_“Oh…” John had said, pushing a biscuit crumb around the table with the back of his spoon, “Torchwood, UNIT, LINDA, man on a roof. Working for is a bit harsh, actually. I’m really just… around.”_

 

 

“The Doctor?” River forces all emotion from her eyes, from her lips, and then she does it. Can’t resist. Makes sure they can all hear. “Doctor who? I thought it was John, something or other.”

John clutches the printout, breathes too deeply; compensates by not blinking enough.

The Doctor, the Doctor, the _Doctor_. She’d been right all along, of course. So who’s this man — fobwatched, android, Nestene duplicate, impersonator? Ganger-of-a-Ganger-of-a-Ganger (and, yes, that had happened)? Some future incarnation doing a spectacularly good job of pretending to not recognise her… and making himself less Time Lord and less old-eyed in the process? He’s probably not a time-travelling robot powered by tiny people, but best put it on the list anyway.

Rose shakes her head, once. “Nah, it’s just… the Doctor. That’s his name.”

Oh, River really should resist, but she has to amuse herself somehow. “It’s a stupid name.”

Rose’s big brown flash, just for a moment, but then she grins. “It’s not even a _name_ , is it?”

“It’s really not. And by the way, I know that’s the Doctor.” Her smile is one hundred percent friendly. Well, maybe ninety-nine. “I work for UNIT.”

 

 

One mention of UNIT, and Rose had bit her lip and got Kate, who is the boss of her or all of them.

Kate is tiny and frowny and ginger and in some gorgeous boots. “I’m not calling the Brigade Leader for this. It can wait till we’re done with the investigation.”

“You don’t have to,” says Rose, “just give me the number.”

“Why bother, when we can just ask our resident genius?” She points to John with a biscuit that looks very much like the ones in the tin on his kitchen table.

It takes John a while to notice he’s the centre of attention, or rather, it takes him a while to look up from the printout. “You won’t see me calling her. She threw a thermos at me!”

“Does this woman work for UNIT or not? Do you know her?”

John catches River’s eye and tugs the line of his mouth a fraction of a millimetre straighter, and River thinks: this is going to get worse before it gets better. “Yes”, he says, “she works for UNIT.”

Kate taps her foot. “You’re certain?”

“We’re working together at the moment, in fact. Very secret. Entirely my fault.”

“Secret? Involving a plastic bag full of Cybertech?”

“The very same!”

“She drugged you!”

“Ah, that. That’s our… thing.” He shrugs. “Who doesn’t like poisoned lipstick?”

“Your loyalty towards Torchwood —”

“Oh, nonono, no!” The printout goes flying, twisting and turning. (It makes its way above River’s head, lands somewhere behind her chair.) “You don’t want to go there, K, you really don’t!”

“Oi!” cries Rose, jabbing a thumb towards River. “Back to her! She’s been on the field? I haven’t met her.”

“Have you met everyone, then?” asks John, splaying his fingers about five millimetres from the tip of Rose’s nose. “Besides, she looks different in a… beret.”

“Would you like my CV?” offers River. Her body heat was losing the battle against the cold room; the metal cuffs around her ankles were stinging, and she has to curl and uncurl her toes.

Rose tucks some hair behind her ears. “First, we have to decide what we’re going to do with you. Kate’s right, you _drugged_ him.”

“I did, yeah.”

 

 

So he’s called the Doctor. He’s clever, he’s annoying, he’s not from this Universe. She can’t help but wonder why ‘John’ couldn’t have been around when the Doctor — the one she was certain was real — was dying.

 

 

Rose puts herself right in front of River; folds her arms so tight the leather of her jacket creaks. “Cybertech, time travel… Please, just, what for? Cos I’ve seen it, both of those, I mean, together, and it’s…”

“Terrifying.” River looks her in the eye, because, oh, it goes back to the first day of her training, to Kovarian standing over her cot.

“Yeah. You all right? Aren’t you cold?”

“Should you care?”

Rose opens her mouth — just as the door unlocks and a man strolls in.

He nods to Kate and to Rose and to John; holds up a flimsy yellow folder. “Finally got the prisoner’s DNA scan. Took forever, something’s —”

John takes one huge step and tears the folder from the man’s hand.

As he flips it through, River’s stomach turns, but she keeps her eyes on Rose, even though Rose has turned away. River had made sure everything about her would appear as human-like as possible at first glance, but if this man had anything to do with the Doctor…

John closes the folder and looks at a smudge of dirt on the wall; doesn’t blink. His expression is positively lustful.

River tells herself it’s due to a nicely rendered graph.

 

 

Through some tickling, Rose manages to snatch the folder; she studies it carefully. “Looks all right, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, just your basic… stuff. She’s probably fine, good ol’ Mel-Mel-Melody. Still, though, one can never be too careful. I think we should run some more tests. Loads more. Cyber-ific ones. Make sure she hasn’t been, you know, compromised.”

Kate perks up, rolls her shoulders. “Is that a possibility?”

“I’m afraid it is. Though, nothing major… we just need to run a few tests. Tests, I’ve said tests already, haven’t I?” He saunters past River; behind and around the chair. “Flashing lights, annoying noises…”

River hisses, “I don’t have all the time in the world!”

He stoops; when he folds upright again, he’s holding the printout. He whispers, “Non-invasive. A plus, that.”

She’s not comfortable, now he’s at her shoulder. It’s something subfebrile, something tugging in all the wrong places. It wasn’t there when they were alone in his flat, why should it be there now? She doesn’t know all about the Doctor, not absolutely everything. She doesn’t know this man. Is it Rule One or is this entire alternate world lying? Her head and her heart pound, but she smiles. “I’ll take your word for it, Doctor, but _why_?”

“It’ll get you out of the cuffs.” He winks and wiggles his eyebrows. “And you pointed a gun at me… River.”

* * *


End file.
